DALLAS - When Southwest Airlines unveiled its new logo and redesign this week, tweets, videos and photos streamed over wall-mounted monitors in the new control center at the Texas-based carrier's headquarters.

A row of customer service agents sitting behind computer monitors typed furiously and watched the screens. They saw immediate feedback and were able to see the thousands of people retweeting photos of the new livery and heart-shaped logo. One user said, "Whoa! Surprised by - but loving the @SouthwestAir facelift! Love the retro throwback look!" Another called the new logo "really old-fashioned and dated."

In Southwest's Listening Center, eight television monitors display visualizations of the thousands of mentions on social media Southwest receives a day, flight and live video of weather and major network news. At this center, the carrier attempts to take advantage of the social space to respond pro-actively to customer feedback and avoid any potential public relations' black eyes. One agent admitted seeing a celebrity's complaint pop up on Twitter and immediately trying to react to avoid the complaint going viral.

"The Listening Center symbolizes our commitment to listening to our internal and external customers, and taking that feedback to make smarter business decisions," said Linda Rutherford, Southwest's vice president of communication and outreach. "As we continue to evolve as a social business, we'll connect with our employees and customers in ways that are meaningful to them."

Several airlines, including Delta Air Lines and Netherlands flag carrier KLM, and other Fortune 500 companies have similar centers that monitor social media to proactively respond to customers.

"It's important to keep up with the pace of technology as well as the pace of the social landscape as a whole," said Alice Wilson, a social business adviser at Southwest. "We wanted to ensure we were a social business."

At the center, which opened a few weeks ago, employees sit at computers and respond to questions on social media and get the most up-to-date information about the buzz around the airline.

Missed a flight? Are there weather delays? For those questions, a complaint posted to a Twitter account could prompt a quicker response than calling a traditional customer service line. The employees at the center are trained as customer relations agents.

Ashley Pettit, a Southwest social business adviser, said the airline has been developing the center for two years and studied how large companies integrated social media into operations.

"We are able to rely on real-time feedback for issues first," Pettit said. "It's been important and helped open the lines of communication to what we are hearing and seeing in the social space throughout the rest of the operation."

David Strutton, a marketing professor at the University of North Texas, said people who fly are constantly engaged with social media. He said people are much more likely to post on Twitter or Facebook if something goes wrong rather than if it goes right. He said companies are making sure to adjust to an "e-connected world."

Strutton said airline passengers often feel like they have little control at airports, where they can face flight delays or lost baggage. Southwest's new center provides an opportunity for fliers to provide feedback, which gives customers more power, he said.

"It's an opportunity to have issues and complaints at least heard and listened to and that shows a high regard and appreciation for the customer," he said.

Erin Mulvaney covers real estate for the Houston Chronicle's business desk. She writes breaking news and trend stories about development, growth and neighborhoods. She also covers business travel and airports. She joined the Chronicle in 2012 as a breaking news reporter, covering shootings, explosions, trials and scandals. A Beaumont native, she has a degree in journalism from the University of Texas. She previously worked in Austin and wrote about politics and policy for several publications.